


Ten Brewing Commandments

by cinna_nugget, coffeemonster



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Angst, Infidelity, Jealousy, M/M, Slow Burn, Tags will be added continuously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 05:36:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6941965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinna_nugget/pseuds/cinna_nugget, https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeemonster/pseuds/coffeemonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens work together to keep John's club running at school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Brewing Commandments

 “But you can’t just _do_ that, Jefferson." Eliza Schuyler was the president of the college’s Environmental Preservation Club and she was losing her patience. “You can’t just... remove a whole club just because _you_ decided that the College Council is most the important thing in school.”

It was barely six in the evening and two prominent students stood in front of George Washington’s desk, arguing. Before arriving in the office, Eliza had never heard anything about the College Council, the school’s student government, deciding to remove her club due to its lack of members and apparently, activity. They had deemed that the classroom space would be more beneficial for them and had tried to coax Washington to remove them without informing anyone from the club in subject. In response, Washington summoned both Eliza and the council’s president to talk to each other and possibly reach a compromise. Sitting behind his desk, he attentively listened to both students with his hands folded on top of his great, walnut desk.

“Uh, no, darling,” began Thomas Jefferson with his lazy Southern drawl, arms folded, looking at Eliza with a slightly condescending gaze.  “I didn’t decide _that_. _We_ decided that your club, with under _ten_ members to its name, would be of more use if you just give all that space you take up to the College Council. We are, after all, serving the student body, including you.”

“No, you’re being--” sputtered Eliza, at a loss for a counter, eyes darting between Thomas and Washington. “We’re still a club with people in it, you can’t just disband and take away something that people are still in. We’re not just little ants, you can’t just try to disperse our club without even trying to talk to anyone from inside.”

“Is there even a single _benefit_ that comes from your little club? Give me one, _please_.”

“First of all, we volunteer to clean the campus of its litter--”

“We’ve got janitors _paid_  for that.”

“I…” Eliza’s eyes finding the floor, teeth slightly hooking onto her bottom lips, her slight panic and heightened emotions blocking her ability to recall the club’s other activities. “I can’t just simply list out everything we do for you, alright? You know, it’s called common decency to at least let someone know that you’re trying to remove their whole club. Or is it that you don’t have any, from what I’ve heard?”

“ _Excuse me?_ ” replied Thomas incredulously, his face twisting into disbelief. “You’re bringing personal shots into this? Trust me, I know _more_ than you could ever hope to defend about yourself.”

Eliza’s eyes flashed with anger and she had almost taken a step towards Thomas to retaliate before Washington shot up from his seat, pushing his chair back with a loud scrape.

“Calm yourselves,” Washington’s great booming voice commanded. The two froze and turned their attention toward the school chancellor. “This obviously is not the place for you two to communicate your points seeing as Mr. Jefferson had carefully prepared himself before this meeting. I’ll recommend you two to first, calm down and secondly, to take this to Debate Club, as I trust they will be able to help _you_ ,” he gestured to Eliza, “organize your points better and for _you,_ ” he turned to Thomas, “to be put on equal grounds with the club in question. I will have the president of that club relay to me the results and from then on I will either authorize or deny your request, Mr. Jefferson. Understood?”

The two nodded in response, Eliza’s face slightly flushing and Thomas twisting his mouth into his signature winning smile.

“Alright, now be on your way. I’ll contact the club to let them know that you will be… present at their upcoming meetings.” Washington pulled the chair back in and seated himself once again. He grabbed a piece of paper and began scribbling, shifting his attention to the task at hand. He gave them a shooing motion with the hand that held a pen as he muttered, “I’m sure you won’t face a problem finding them.”

Thomas and Eliza shared a look and being the Southern gentleman that he was, gestured for Eliza to go ahead before himself. She grimaced at him and walked out of Washington’s office with a proud strut, Thomas following her. They parted ways immediately after reaching the other side of the door without a word, Eliza making her way to her fellow clubmate’s dorm.

John Laurens had a solid schedule without much irregularity, leaving him relatively easy to locate. Between his class schedule and soccer, much of his time was spent in his assigned dorm room bent over his desk studying, occasionally taking a stance beside his window with a pipe in one hand and a lighter in the other. It was also a regular occurrence to find him at frat parties with liquor in one hand and an arm wrapped around someone else who he may or may not know, shouting along with the booming music and dancing with his entrapped person during the weekend. Easily popular with his good looks, smarts, and athleticism, many pined for him but none had the good luck of fully capturing him.

What only a handful of people know though, is that he was also an active member of the tiny Environmental Preservation club, for the sole reason to become the active caretaker of the beloved, rare, Diamondback Terrapin turtle named Eleanor that the school was somehow able to obtain and left to the club to care for. One of the science department’s professors had graciously allowed them to keep it in their classroom while the club met elsewhere in a larger room. Often alone, he spoke to the turtle as he cleaned it’s tank about things he couldn’t possibly discuss with his… “friends”. He found comfort in the solitude with the turtle’s presence and found himself calling the pet his closest ally.

A Tuesday evening, he was seated on his chair with a book opened on his desk with a notebook by its right side, scribbling on the paper interesting facts or material that might be referenced in his midterms. A student studying to become a sports medicine physician against the wishes of his father to study law, he had to prove to his father of his worth and how well he could thrive within his chosen course. A slight dip in his grades could not only mean a retraction of his full ride scholarship for soccer, but also the full force of his father ripping him out of his college and placing him into a specialized law school. Rich as his family is, a scholarship was the best excuse for him to choose his course and Henry Laurens, a strict but sensible man, had no reasons to refuse him.

A series of knocks at his door took him out of his concentration. He took a deep breath, stretched his arms and legs up and out through his sweatshirt and shorts, put his pen on the desk and walked to the door. Assuming it was his roommate, Hercules Mulligan, forgetting to bring his keys with him, he opened the door without peeking through the door viewer to see who his visitor was.

“John Laurens,” breathed Eliza at his doorway. “You are _not_ going to believe what just happened. It’s the most aggravating thing I’ve ever heard of!”

“Hello to you too,” John replied, an eyebrow cocking up with intrigue. “Come in.”

Eliza strode in past him and sat herself at the edge of his bed and waited for him to take his own seat to prepare himself for her story. He placed himself back on his chair and turned to her, placing his elbow on his desk and placing his cheek on his palm.

“You know the president of college council?” Eliza started. “Thomas Jefferson? We were both called up to Washington’s office earlier. Do you know why?”

“Tell me why, Eliza.”

“He wants to disband the club! He didn’t even _think_ to ask, he just went and told Washington. Apparently the whole college council had decided that we were too small and too useless and I was put on the spot to counteract that and I froze on the spot and I--”

“Wait, what? He can’t just do that, right?” John’s hand removing itself from his face, leaning forward in concern. “Who’s going to take care of Eleanor?”

“John, can you please take your mind off of your turtle for a moment and realize that this jerk just assumed that  we would just abide by his wishes to delete us? Like the entire club. You and your turtle aren’t the only ones that’d be affected by this. He’s so absurd, I just…. Ugh. Now we have to take it to Debate Club and hash it out there. I looked so stupid in front of Washington, John. So stupid. To top it off, they only want the classroom space since it's spacious and everything. They could’ve just _asked_ for us to at least move, but no, they want to completely rid of the club.” Eliza took a breath of air and plopped into the bed on her back.

“Yeah, that sounds like something Jefferson would do. That dude’s a total asshole, I have no idea how he got elected when he manages to piss off almost everyone he meets. Well, actually, okay, I admit a lot of people do inexplicably like him, but his little, prissy, holier-than-thou demeanor pisses me off everytime I have the unfortunate happenstance to find him in my views. What are you-- _we_ going to do?”

“Meet up with Debate Club,” Eliza replied to the ceiling with a sigh. She turned to look at him with her pleading eyes. “Washington wants us to argue about it there and he’ll take the results into consideration. Please help me, John. If not for the club, then for Eleanor. I know your cool-dude reputation is important to you, so you can come under the guise as my friend or something, but please help me out.”

 _“Under the guise as my friend”_ thought John, slightly offended. But she was right, they weren’t really friends, only people who were in the same club. The reason she was there was probably due to the fact that he had social pull and, likely, the least busy of the whole eight-membered club. He sighed, pulled his most reassuring smile, stood up and offered his hand out to her. “Sure.”

Eliza took his hand and pulled herself up and out of the bed and quickly hugged him and muttered a thank you into his chest.

“Meet up with me at the debate club meeting next Tuesday, alright?” She pulled away and walked herself to the door. “Four P.M., don’t be late!” and she was out of his room, leaving John standing by himself in his room. He glanced at his bedside clock that read 7:30 and decided it would be a good time as any to get a breather from his dwellings and visit his turtle friend, Eleanor.

After shedding his shorts for jeans, he grabbed his keys and made his way to the building where Eleanor was located. If he recalled correctly, this was also the same building where meetings for the debate club was held.

He made his way in through the lit entrance and leisurely walked to the classroom, taking his time. He arrived at his destination and entered the room, greeting the professor who let them use the room for the turtle. The professor usually left at 8 PM on schedule and trusted John in the classroom by himself, as always. 

“Hey, girl,” John greeted the swimming turtle. He grabbed a bottle of freeze-dried krill, sprinkled some on top of the tank and pulled a chair to sit on in front of the aquarium. “I heard the council was trying to shut down our club today. It’s fucking bullshit, honestly. I don’t understand why Jefferson feels a need to constantly flaunt his power, but now _we’re_ getting the brunt of his shit.” Eleanor swam up to place the krill in her mouth. He looked around and scanned the room to make sure that no one was in the room and at this point in the night, the building was usually mostly empty. He leaned forward, pressed his forehead to the tank along with the palm of his left hand and closed his eyes.

“Then, earlier, Eliza said this _thing_ that kind of made me reevaluate _things_ a little bit and now I have to go to the debate club to fight for us. Guess I’ll finally get to see why it’s so popular there? Man, It’s probably a little stupid of me to say this now, since it seems I’m always reiterating it but, I don’t know what I’d do without you here, no one really cares to listen to me here, y’know? I’ve got a bunch of, like, friends, yeah? But it’s still lonely here. This really sucks, I don’t know if the school would let me keep you under my watch or if they would just transfer you to an actual existing club to be taken care of, but I don’t want to lose you. You’re basically my family at this point. Not even my dad feels like family right now.” He sighed, his chest feeling heavy with the thought that he might lose his dear pet. He opened his eyes to look at the floor dejectedly.

Then--

_Click._

John jumped and froze, slowly turning his head towards the door. Had he been heard?

Had someone been there?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! I'm really excited to be releasing a fic that I actually have big plans for.. I have outlines for plot and EVERYTHING! Cinna_nugget and I worked together planning out the story and I'm writing out the fic. Here's to hoping!  
> I also love coffee and puns so  
> That title kind of has nothing to do with anything HAHA


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